Bazzill Blog

Hello, Bazzill fans! This is Jennifer here with you today and I have a bit of a different post for you. As we are right in the middle of summer, you are likely finding yourself on the road with your family making memories that you will want to document later. Today I have a few tips on organizing those memories and capturing things you wouldn’t normally consider. I’m not going to tell you to take pictures of your kids at the beach or with Mickey, you already do those things, today we are going to explore some different approaches that I think you will enjoy.

1. Take a journal of some kind with you. For me, I keep it simple. I carry a small, pocketed moleskine in my purse so I can easily drop in ticket stubs and write down quick things I may want to recall for later journaling on pages. I don’t like to bring home a ton of memorabilia (we will get to a solution for that in a moment), so I don’t need a lot of space for those things. If you prefer to bring home lots of ephemera such as maps, brochures, napkins, etc, you will likely want to bring an accordian style folder with you. Leave it in the hotel room or the car for easy stashing of your paper memories later on.

2. If you are like me, and prefer to not collect lots of bits of paper and ephemera, but still like to capture those little things, capture them with your camera! On a recent trip to Montreal I grabbed this shot that shows my husband’s bedside stand one morning before heading out for the day. It has Canadian money (which is super pretty, by the way) right there in the shot along with a bit of a shopping bag from the adventures of the previous day. I took a similar shot that also contained a Metro card. These simple shots make for gorgeous scrapbook layouts without the bulk of bringing home all of those bits and pieces.

3. My next tip is to capture the WHERE. Okay, so we went to Montreal. Instead of including a shot of the city or something, however, I decided to show off a slightly different approach to capturing the where. For this trip we stayed in an apartment a little bit outside of the downtown area. It was an absolutely beautiful place! I took shots of the interior, but this one really stood out after the trip, as it held the memory I was looking for. This is a shot through the front door window. It beautifully shows exactly what the neighborhood looked like and what we saw each day as we began our adventures. This is our where for the trip. Look for unique views, as they are more likely to bring you back to your feelings on that trip than your average shot of the sign outside of the park.

4. Capture moments. You can do that via the traditional methods of catching your little one jumping that GREAT wave or capturing that action shot as the tea cups swing by, but there are quieter moments that are easily missed and can add so much to your albums. When going through my shots after this trip, this photo o four coats hanging on the hooks was one of my absolute favorites. It speaks to the actual relaxation that happened while we were there. It reminds me that we had no agenda, we came and went as we pleased, and we even stayed in and had pizza and watched television one night. All of those memories come flooding back with this simple photo of our coats. Because we felt at home away from home. Comfortable. Relaxed.

5. Finally, capture the mood. I touched on this a bit with the previous tip, but this shot really captures that idea so well. We often think by posing and smiling we are telling the world “HI! We are happy and on vacation!” Well, yes, sure, but there are other ways to capture that, as well. Sometimes stillness, light, and a pair of shoes does exactly that!

My final suggestion is to bring a backup! Bring something with you, a laptop, a flash drive, an extra card for your camera… just make sure you have somewhere to put your photos after each day. You don’t want to lose those shots! Don’t forget to hand the camera (or a phone) to someone else in the family to be sure you are in a shot or two somewhere along the line.

Oh…and perhaps most importantly…it’s okay if you don’t come home with a thousand vacation photos. You may note that I don’t have many here when we were out and about… that’s because I was engaged in being there, not in grabbing every single possible shot. Make memories. Enjoy the moments.